Thrashers-Rangers in review

1) I saw Artem Anisimov after the game. He was standing, talking to one of the Thrashees, no boot, no crutches, no cane. I didn’t see if he was limping, but I imagine he was. He didn’t sound terribly worried. That doesn’t mean that it’s good or bad or whatever.

2) Early in the game, I mentioned in the pressbox that the golden child, Stepan, had flattened out lately. Then he was benched in the third. I agree with Tortorella on this. But I also like that Tortorella isn’t going to give up on him, just monitor him and hang in there with him, accepting the bad with the good. I think he’ll be all right. But I wouldn’t set the bar too high. Maybe we all got a little cuckoo over his preseason and his Opening Night hat.

3) Boy, the defense struggled in this one. I think it was the fourth Atlanta goal when all five Rangers skaters were mesmerized by the puck, all watching it and doing nothing, covering nobody. So unlike what we’d seen the previous three games.

4) It’s not an excuse, but the Garden ice on this warm, humid day was as bad as I’ve seen it in a while. Looked a bit like the chicken dumpling soup they served in the pressroom

5) Saw Adam Graves after the game, with a very sick little girl in a wheelchair. That’s aa surprise, huh? It makes me smile any time I see Adam. It makes me smile even longer and wider when he’s doing another of his zillion good deeds.

6) Byfuglien=monster.

7) Is there anything better than these MSG/Fuse cross-promotion things? Ugh.

8) That penalty on Del Zotto … I don’t know. The guys chips it past him. If Del Zotto doesn’t take the body on him, he’s beaten and if he doesn’t do that regularly, he’s in Hartford with Redden (or Reddened as we like to say). Just another one of those pansification rules. To me, it’s a clean hip check on the guy who just played the puck. WTB?

9) Rozsival wasn’t great, but he was probably the best defenseman. He played that 2-on-1 as well as it could be played, taking away the pass, forcing the shot … and Biron cheated off the post and got beat. It was a great shot, but …

10) I’ve said that I think the Rangers are new and improved. But we’re starting to see that that’s true for a lot of the lower echelon teams in the Least this year. Maybe we won’t be calling it the Least by the end of the year. Maybe the Rangers will have to be a lot more than a few points better to make the playoffs this year.

11) Avery was terrific along the wall in the offensive zone. But again he made a few horrible plays in the neutral zone and defensive zone. He wasn’t alone, so I don’t want to sound like I’m picking on him.

12) Finally, how the byfuglien does the goalie get run over with Boogaard on the ice? I’m not saying Boogaard should go ballistic and get an instigator and a misconduct, or should bury the guy through the net and the backboards and get suspended. But you’d think that for $1.65M, and at his size and ability, that he might at least pay the guy a visit, you know, get in his mug with a few threatening words. Do something. Something! Because if he’s doing nothing there, why the byfuglien is he getting a uniform?

———————

I’m going to be completely out of commission today. So youse guys can help out and troll the other sites and keep us up to date if and when the Rangers announce the results of Anisimov’s MRI, or if and when they call up some player(s) from Redden-ville. Thanks.

As bad as the D was and Staal and DZ had some pretty ghastly plays (Staal got torched on Little’s goal and DZ left his lane on the rush on Kane’s) the offense did them no favors when the game was close in the 2nd.

As nice as it’s to see the guys battle along the boards and around the net, they really were inept at making good passes through the neutral zone and having guys in position to receive passes once getting into the attack zone. Too many times puck carriers were left unsupported and having to go 1 on 2 in isolation. They also shot way tooany pucks straight into defenders when shooting lanes were clearly blocked. Credit Atlanta for taking away the middle of the ice and getting guys in front of shots but better passing would help open up the ice.

And that sort of weak offensive play is where you see the difference a player like Gaborik make. Defenses immediately respect his speed and back off so they don’t get burned one on one. He also draws the attention of multiple defenders and is very good at spotting open men. No one else on the team can do that.

I really think we came out and scored that early goal and got way too confident and didn’t respect Atlanta at all. We started being way too cute with the puck and came in with the stick checks instead of taking the body and doing all the little gritty things that we had been doing to win. We took the sad van straight to barf bag city. Sure, “We hung in there and didn’t give up,” and that is fine, but performances like that are just unacceptable. You really hope they learn from this one that they can’t play like that.

After that run on Biron I think it was Emminger who went right over the the guy and shoved him a few times. A minute later Sam and Joe said Boogey went over and yapped at the guy. So he didnt do nothing. Just sayin.

I too was troubled to see Biron get run into, but a few thoughts in boogey’s defense. First, I think the contact was accidental. Second, kudos to the defenseman (eminger I think) for at least hitting Thorburn a few times afterwards. Third I think Boogey did say something, and maybe all that is needed from him is a few words.
I would like to see Boogey take an instigator to send a message, but I’m almost certain Torts wouldve been mad if Boogey gave Atlanta an extended PP.

I was at the game last night. It was one of the more difficult games to watch that I’ve seen in a while. As poor as the Rangers played at times I can’t stress enough how bad the ice was (not that I was on it- ha). The puck would not settle down. This caused a real lack of flow and precision. It was just fugly game. There was one play where Staal should have kept the puck in the offensive zone by simply smacking it back down the boards. Instead, the puck jumped over his stick and it led to an odd-man rush, which on the same shift, led to a goal. This was the type of stuff that was happening all game. Just very chippy stuff.

That being said, both teams had to play on the same crappy ice. But man, what a terrible game to watch, especially in person where things are usually that much more exciting.

I woke up with a migraine that felt like my eyeballs were being sucked out of the back of my head with a high powered industrial vacuum cleaner. I didn’t have any Excedrin and Tylenol or Advil were not going to get the job done, so I took a naproxen, and it is just now starting to work. Not feeling well, and being a teacher do not mix at all. I am not saying that being at any other job is easy when you don’t feel well or have a migraine, but it is just different, and it SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately, my work load has picked up dramatically so I rarely have time to parts of the game or post regularly.

However, what I did see was atrocious play by Mark Staal! Awful on two of the goals and a huge disappointment overall. As Carp pointed out, Rozsival was mediocre, which may have made him the best defensmen for the evening… What is wrong with Staal? Alot of you Staal lovers have been defending him for the past few weeks, but I’ve thought he’s looked atrocious since pre-season. He almost seems to be getting worse?!

I also think that Staal has been fairly inconsistent this season (this young season, mind you). He has a lot of defensive lapses. Last night the ice was so choppy that the puck was hopping all over the place which isn’t fun for anyone. The biggest problem with the Rangers defense in general, though, is that they’re not exactly intimidating. In a chippy gme like last night the best thing you can do as a defenseman is to take the body. This always wins. I’ve never seen a defensive core wave their sticks around at pucks in the slot more than the Rangers d-men. This is the area where small guys like Brian Little should NOT be permitted to just skate around and take swipes at shooting the puck. The Rangers defenseman are all skinny, weak finesse players. They should stick BOOGARD on defense or hire Beukeboom as a defensive coach. These guys all look like girl scouts out there.

Every D is going to get burned once in a while. I think it was Dawes that completely undressed Pronger a few years ago in Anaheim. Nigel freakin Dawes!

He hasn’t played his best or most consistent hockey, and the frustrating part is that he’s capable of playing better. The last stretch of the season last year in their playoff push he was one of their best players when he started to mix in solid D and getting more active in the offense.

He probably won’t turn into Pronger or Chara, but he tends to be their most reliable D in their own end. As much as Rozi has played better of late, he still flings the puck around the boards under pressure whereas Staal is more than willing to eat the puck and grind it out along the wall. He wins most of the battles for pucks behind the net and in the corners and has a good sense of controlling skating and passing lanes on the rush. He could play with some more snarl, but he does man up on attackers fairly well. It’s just not in the bone jarring hit type plays. Typically he’ll stand up a player when they go one on one and last night he happened to get beat. Little had a full head of steam and probably should have been taken out of the play in the neutral zone anyway. Smearing the opposing player along the glass looks good and gets a roar from the crowd but there’s a bit of risk attached to lunging at a player. I remember in the mid-90’s series against the Flyers, Beukeboom running all over the place to try to hit Lindros. After a while Lindros recognized this strategy and started to dish the puck off the Leclair and Renberg to go 2 on 1 against Leetch. Staying in your lane and forcing bad angle shots or passes is effective as well.

“Did you complain this much when he scored against Boston? Just a question…”
…addressed at me?

I’m pretty sure I didn’t post at all after that game, but I was nauseated by all the Staal love I saw posted. 1 goal doesn’t mean he’s playing well, it just means he has great hands on one shift (heck, even Colton Orr gets a goal or two a season!)

Check almost any other game that I have posted, and I have posted about how bad Staal has played this year. He’s been worse than “inconsistent”, he’s been their worst defensmen through preseason and this early part of the season.

I agree with you Blueshirt. I think that Staal is their best defenseman in the corners also. No one is better at tying a guy up, getting control of the puck and getting it up to an open man.

That being said, Staal and the rest of the defense needs to get tough in FRONT of the net. I’m not talking about running around chasing guys. I don’t think BIG hits are necessary. SMART hits, however, are essential. You all watch these guys, right? Tell me they don’t just flail their sticks around in front of the net looking to chip the puck to the left or right? They need to get their noses a little dirty for god’s sake. Like I said earlier, Brian Little should NOT be able to park his smurf ass in front of our net. Never. Ever.

I agree about sauer. In all the games he has played I thought he was good. I also agree about Gilroy, either switch him back to his original position (forward) or send him to hartford. I also feel stall is over rated. I really truly always felt that way about Stall. The rangers defence is not very good and with Tortorella’s system there is more pressure on the defence. There are going to be allot of high scoring games this year for the blue shirts and unfortunately the blue shirts will be on the short end of the stick.

I wonder if Sauer getting Prucha’d so much now, has more to do the the GM dictating to the coach, than any decision by the coach? All the time in sports you see overpaid player acquisitions getting far more playing time than is warranted by their performance level. Best example in baseball is the Phillies playing 38-year old Raul Ibanez in 155 of 162 games, this year, when his performance level was way down from his career norm. On the heels of doing the same thing a year ago when he had nagging injuries and was obviously worn out, late in the season.

It appears that these ego-manical GM’s create their own problems then try to palm them off on coaches and managers. Sauer is light-years better than Eminger, but again, the GM is reluctant to admit his mistake. But since he is never held accountable nor fired by ownership, why can’t he cut bait and amend his mistake for the good of the team?

I agree with NYR_Fan on everything. Sauer HAS played well and is a lot steadier andmore physical than the likes of a Gilroy or an Eminger. I ALSO think that Boyle deserves a bigger role on the team in general. At least he makes an impact when he’s on the ice.

DO you know what I’m seeing every year? I see Glen Sather trying to reconstruct a team that can compete… in 1985! This guy doesn’t know or won’t own up to the fact that the game has changed. The DYNASTY Oilers, as awesome as they were, would simply have a harder time competing in 2010. Just in terms of pure physicality they wouldn’t be as footloose and fancy free as they were in ’85. Sather is constantly looking for similar type players in size and stature. He has to wake up and smell 2011. He needs more physical players. These scarecrow defensemen that he gets are for the birds.

So I found out from ESPN The Magazine that the three times Crosby has been injured are the three times he has called his mother on game day. So that’s the secret! Someone has to give him a reason to call his mom on game day again.

No time to talk too much, but I think that early goal made them feel too cocky and they just started to glide. I think they felt they can just easily take two points and lost their intensity. And everyone was just out of position, many brain cramps in neutral zone. Last season Rangers. Biron was out of position on at least two goals. It wasn’t anyone’s fault in particular, the whole team fell apart. Atlanta, btw, was very beatable last night. In fact, I believe if they continued with the same intensity, it would’ve been a blowout. The good news- they were able to come back and outplayed them during the third. For the most part. The best news- Anisimov wasn’t hurt.

I was at the game last night. There was no fluidity at all. Rangers seemed flat from the moment they scored the first goal. Def. didnt deserve to win, but unlike last year, they at least showed some heart and made it somewhat interesting.

The only highlight for me was getting to move down from our seats to the 3rd row behind the Rangers bench b/c my father in law was sitting there and saw some empty seats and signaled us down. There were a few d-bag 20 something’s yelling at Hank “Hank hope you enjoyed your off day a-hole”…. thought it was kind of funny actually, though i doubt hank did.

Also – Mark Hoppus (blink 182) was sitting behind us for a few mins. He was promoting a stupid show on Fuse. Also – they showed Vinny from Jersey Shore and he was booed when he was up on the jumbotron.

I really wanted a win last night; would have been nice to sustain a 4 game winning streak. Great to see our guys not quit on the game down 5-2. And great that AA is not seriously hurt. Hopefully, Sauer is back tomorrow.

The negative portrayal of a great Russian (or any) community is something i am not too excited about…

i’m gonna quote my friend on this one… i really like what he said to me the other day in the email.

‘This show won’t explain what SOVIET JEWS and non-jews alike went through living under communism and the reasons why they turn to a life of confusion and pursuit of materials when arriving in the states, then maybe then i could see value in a show that exploits the idiots, pays them chump change while the minor few make millions and the mass public gets dumber and becomes more racist.’

Yeah, the guy Vinny was booed. But only by the few people in the crowd who actually knew who he was — after they put his name on the board. I’m trying to think what would have to happen for me to watch that show even for five seconds.